AA: Tsuruya
by Madcinder
Summary: This is the story of a silly, energetic girl from Japan who finds herself tossed into the world of Remnant. Friend and foe come together to face the greatest enemy of humanity, but Tsuruya is not content to sit idly by while the struggle for survival rages on. It has been three years since the Grimm attacked in force, and the people of Remnant are in dire need of a new hope.
1. The Ivory Box

**"The object of our hate, the target of all our rage. They scatter wildly across this world, and they must be purged. We shall never become sated until they are wiped from existence. Oh, how our blood burns at the sight of them, at the thought of their creations, their perversions of nature. What one among us would not give their own life for the chance to disembowel every last one of these creatures, to dissect their bodies and tear down their works.**

**To think that we could have been so blinded. Our focus on these paltry few, how pathetic. If only we could have known that out there, somewhere beyond the stars we see, they infest another world so far beyond this one. We fought and bled and died to destroy a measly few million when elsewhere they thrive in the billions. What fools we have been.**

**No longer. All that remains is for us to leave this world. One final push on the rabble squabbling on the surface of this worthless remnant of a world, so they may know who they face. We have been preparing for years, and now the time has come. Once we have burned it to the ground, we then will return to the void between worlds and begin our journey to the home of this... pestilence. The Human race will end by our hand, tooth and claw, wing and sting, tusk and fang. All will tremble and perish before our might. For this fate so grim, that is what we are.**

**Across endless seas of stars, the universe stretches beyond my sight. One day, near or far, I will find my way home. I will lead my kind to our destiny, the destruction of these worthless being in our wake. We will rise above even the ancient gods and be known throughout all creation. Fear at the mention of our name will become our role in the lives expanding through the whole of eternity. Let us consume everything in our fire, and melt the ice that is our sworn enemy."**

* * *

><p>Two teenage girls sat side by side, their eyes glued to the video on the computer screen in front of them. The video was a security camera showing footage of a bank robbery that had been uploaded to the internet. Whoever had uploaded it, they had hidden the video in a hard-to-find part of the web. Finding it, if you were to ask the girls, was worth it.<p>

One of the girls, wearing a yellow ribbon in her short brown hair, pointed excitedly at the screen. "You see that right there! That!" She paused the video. "Tell me those aren't cat ears! I dare you!"

The other girl, sporting long green hair, leaned back and laughed. "That is pretty good, Haru-nyan! I think we're on to something big, nyoro!"

'Haru-nyan', known to most as Haruhi Suzumiya, stood up and surveyed the clubroom before her. The five other members of her club, the SOS Brigade, sat around the clubroom. Two boys were playing a board game. Two girls were reading books. The final member, another girl, was serving tea.

Haruhi pointed out towards the table they were gathered around, her arm reaching over the computer desk she was sitting at. "Alright, seeing as tomorrow is the beginning of Summer break, I have a special assignment! Bonus points and even a promotion to whoever can catch a cat person!"

One of the boys looked up at her, groaning. "Haruhi, that was probably just somebody wearing a headband with cat ears on it. You put rabbit ears on your own head enough, I thought that would have occurred to you."

Haruhi glared at him. "Shut up, Kyon! If you get any points, I'm giving them to Yuki instead!"

The lavender-haired girl of whom Haruhi was referring, Yuki Nagato, just sat and continued to read her book. Across from her, a blue-haired girl looked up from her own book. She smiled. "Would you like it to be a girl, or does it matter?"

Haruhi hopped up and down with excitement. "See, that's the spirit, Ryoko! Technically it doesn't matter, but I guess there might be bonus points if it's a really cute girl! I mean, I'm talking Mikuru-level cuteness here!" She pointed at the girl who had been serving tea.

Mikuru Asahina clutched the tea tray to her body nervously. "What if... what if it's a cat that's a girl?"

Haruhi looked speechless for a moment. "A... cat that's a girl..." She thought for a few seconds before answering. "Well, I guess if Mikuru can find a cute cat, then she can have an extra point or two."

Kyon raised his hand. "I have a question. Where did these points come from? This is the first time I've heard of them."

Haruhi rolled her eyes like it should have been obvious. "The person with the lowest number of points buys us lunch whenever we go out on a mission."

Before Kyon could complain, the room was filled with the sound of a phone ringing. Haruhi looked annoyed at being interrupted, but stopped the moment she saw it was Yuki's phone. She had never seen the girl use her phone before, but had contacted her by it.

Yuki lifted the phone to her ear, setting her book down on the table. She seemed to be listening, not saying anything. Everyone just watched, wondering who could be calling Yuki. Eventually, the girl spoke into the phone, offering only a one word answer. "Yes."

As soon as Yuki closed her phone and put it away, Haruhi pressed her for answers. "Who was that? What did they want? Why would anyone who isn't here be calling you? Was it a pervert? What was- wait, where are you going?"

Yuki had stood up, placing her book in her bag. She looked to Haruhi and answered without really answering any of the questions she had been asked. "We have a mission."

Haruhi suddenly launched into excitement. "What? Really? Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" She nearly jumped over the computer, but managed to go around it at the last moment. She rushed for the door, grabbing Kyon on the way past and dragging him along.

Ryoko stood up and headed to follow, patting the other boy on the shoulder. "Come on, Koizumi. You weren't going to win anyway."

Koizumi shrugged and got up as well, leaving his game with Kyon waiting on the table for their return. Yuki waited for Mikuru to change out of the maid costume she wore while serving tea in the clubroom and back into her school uniform. When the green-haired girl tried to follow them out, Yuki turned and raised her hand to stop her.

"Brigade members only."

Mikuru looked shocked. "Why can't Tsuruya come with us?"

Tsuruya flicked some of her green hair over her shoulder, mumbling quietly. "Nyoro~"

Yuki just stared forward, not really looking at either of them. "She has something else to do."

With an uncertain glance back at her friend, Mikuru started down the hall with Yuki, leaving Tsuruya standing in the doorway of the clubroom. She looked around for a moment before turning and heading back into the room, where she tidied up a bit and turned off the computer. On her way out, she was surprised by a visitor.

Tsuruya closed the door behind her, then gave a slight bow to the girl. "Miss Kimidori. What are you doing here?" She swallowed any cat noises that could have escaped from her throat.

Emiri Kimidori, whose hair was a paler shade of green, glanced down at the bag she was carrying. "I was wondering if you'd like to walk home together. I have something I want you to have, so..."

Tsuruya had never talked much with Emiri, but she figured any chance to get to know someone better was a good opportunity that shouldn't be ignored. Plus, there seemed to be a promise of a gift of some kind. She grinned. "Okay! Let's go!"

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><p>Tsuruya sat on her bed, her back leaning against the wall. She had walked with Emiri until their paths home separated. Before they parted ways, Emiri had given her a package. Now home, Tsuruya was trying to make sense of the gift. Inside the package was a strange box. She recognized the feel of its surface, determining that it was made of ivory. It was about a foot long, and maybe four inches wide and tall. There was a carving of a tusk or a fang on the top.<p>

Emiri had said it would be important. Her exact words were stranger than just that, but Tsuruya was good at figuring out what people meant. She also figured that Yuki had been talking about this when she claimed Tsuruya would have something else to do. Emiri and Yuki were synced like that.

According to Emiri, the box was a sort of beacon. She had explained that portals to other worlds occasionally appeared in scattered locations. The ivory box served to draw portals to it and hold them open. It could be used to hold a steady portal to another world in one place, useful as these portals normally lasted very brief periods of time and rarely came into being anywhere accessible by Humans. Statistically speaking, they did not frequent the troposphere.

Tsuruya understood how these portals worked. She just was not previously aware of the sort of beacon this ivory box supposedly was. She had no need to worry about being swallowed up by portal either, as Emiri had explained that the beacon only functioned when it was stood on its end with the fang's tip pointing down.

Being the girl she was, Tsuruya wanted to test it out. Emiri hadn't told her not to, and likely would not have given it to her if she didn't expect the excitable girl to try it out. Getting up from her bed, she placed the box on her shelf standing on its end with the fang pointing downwards. She stepped back and waited, not really knowing how long it would take. At least, according to Emiri, the box also made the portals more visible. Also a relief, it would only attract one at a time, and she could break off the connection by simply changing the box's position.

It struck her that caution was in order here, as she didn't know what might be on the other side of the portal. She left her room, with the beacon still searching for a nearby portal. In another room of the mansion, her family's private residence, she found exactly what she needed. Several decorative swords were hanging from the wall. The collection was actually quite large, a display of her family's wealth. She selected one, knowing full well that they were only decorative in that no one ever used them. They were definitely real, no doubt about it.

After checking the sword to make sure it was not dulled, she sheathed it and turned to head back to her room. Nearing the open door, she heard a loud crash come from her bedroom. She ran the rest of the way, then stopped just before her door. Something was moving around in her room, and she could hear its steps. She could also hear it sniffing the air and panting.

Turning the corner and drawing her sword, she came face to face with a black beast. It was twice her height, even though it was hunched over and standing on all fours, and was covered in black fur. White bony protrusions sprouted from its elbows, and what looked like a bone mask covered its face, red markings making a strange pattern across the white surface. It had very wolf-like features.

It saw her and lunged, swiping at her with a large clawed hand. Reacting in an instant, she lunged forward as well. She was inside the beast's range, and barreling into its chest. Not expecting her bold move, the beast was forced back. Attacking again, Tsuruya tackled it back into her room.

She hadn't taken the portal into consideration, and only realized her mistake once she was flying through empty blackness. The beast glared at her, its red eyes glowing in the darkness. Giving it no more opportunity, she raised her sword and stuck it through the beast's head. Releasing it, she watched it spiral away into the black, dark smoke coming off its body as it slowly dissolved.

Turning to look where she was going, she saw herself a few seconds from being flung through another portal, leading back into a world. Not her world, but a world. She understood where she was. It was the darkness between worlds. An empty place where one could travel from world to world. Unguided as she was, she couldn't stop the imminent collision.

Tsuruya crashed into the wall of a building, then fell several meters before splashing to a stop in a puddle of rainwater. She found herself staring up at a cloudy sky, rain pouring down and drenching her, her sword laying in the water beside her. She knew what had happened, but she had no idea where she was.

A man's voice spoke to her. "You're going to want to get up. There's an Ursa coming."

He was speaking English. Which was fine, because she understood the language and could speak it well, but she couldn't help but wonder how someone in another world knew English. And why was it English instead of, say, Arabic or Creole? Baffling as it was, she was thankful it was at least something she understood. She turned her head to look at the man. He was wearing all black, including a long coat. On his face was a white mask with red patterns just like she had seen on the beast's face. In his hand was a sword, fairly similar to her own, and along with his spiky red hair she could see two horns on the top of his head.

He sounded irritated when he spoke again. "Come on, get up. We don't have much time. It's bad enough being out here as it is, but we're as good as dead if we don't get back to Beacon before nightfall."

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><p><strong>Author's notes: Okay, I know you probably have a few questions. I anticipate questions about Ryoko Asakura being a Brigade member. I anticipate questions about why Adam, at least I assume you'll recognize that that is Adam (and if not... tada!), is heading to Beacon. I anticipate that you'll feel like you've missed something very important once you find out what's going on through the next few chapters.<strong>

**I also anticipate that you'll find out right about now that there are three other stories that take place before this one and are planned for release at a later date. Enjoy.**


	2. The World Of Remnant

Rain poured all around her. Tsuruya rolled over and pushed herself up onto her feet. Standing up, she was completely drenched. She looked around to find herself in a ruined city, long-burning fires engulfing a building here and there. She couldn't begin to guess what had happened here. She made sure her sword was sheathed and fastened to her waist.

The man behind her, at least she assumed it was a man and not some evil creature, cleared his throat impatiently. "Ursa's almost here. I think we're going to have to fight it if we want to get away. And, of course, that fight will probably attract more Grimm. I hope you're ready for battle."

There was a word or two he had said that she wasn't certain of the meaning of, but when she thought about it in context she figured that he might be referring to something like the wolf-monster she had encountered before. She drew her sword. "I'm ready."

That seemed to satisfy him, as he turned away from her to looked down towards the end of the alley. Then, coming from around the corner of a ruined building, a giant bear-like monster appeared. It had the same look as the wolf from before, so she determined that they were indeed similar, with the bony protrusions and mask and the red lines on its face. The bear, Ursa, whatever, was much bigger. She could see that there were huge spikes on its back as well. It didn't look like an easy kill.

The man jumped at the Ursa, just barely dodging a sudden swipe from the beast's paw. He drew his sword in an instant and slashed it across the monster's face. It fell back, roaring in pain, but jumped back to the fight immediately. The man landed, quickly rolling out of the way of another strike. He slashed at the beast's paw as he went, causing more pain.

Tsuruya wanted to help, but she wasn't sure where to start. She didn't even know what she was up against. Sure, she had killed the wolf-creature, but she had no basis for any sort of concept of the power gap between the two monsters. While she was hesitating, thinking through her options and capabilities, the Ursa got a hit in on the man. He was sent flying and crashing into the wall, and then slumped to the ground. The Ursa lumbered toward him on its hind legs, moving in for the kill.

No time left to think, Tsuruya shouted at the monster. No clue if it could understand her, she shouted the first thing that came to mind in her English vocabulary. "Hey! Look at me, dweeb!" The Ursa turned to look at her, so she continued. "Yeah, that's right! Come and get me, dork!"

It was a success, to whatever degree it could be considered, as the giant black monster left the man behind and headed for her instead. She drew her sword, totally not ready for fighting something this big, but not about to let the first person she met in another world get eaten. As it got nearer to her, she had to admit that she had no idea how to fight something like this. Now standing over her, the Ursa roared down at her.

Tsuruya rolled her eyes. "Ah... damn it all."

A second before it would have brought its large clawed paw down on top of her, a dark figure streaked through the air over its head, landed on top of the white bony mask, and drove a long sword blade through the top of its skull. The tip of the blade poked out the bottom of the the Ursa's jaw. The beast fell forward, and if it weren't for her having jumped away to dodge its attack, she would have been crushed under its weight.

The man, no worse for wear, stepped down from the beast's head and sheathed his sword. "You don't have any combat experience, do you?"

Tsuruya watched the corpse of the Ursa as it began to disintegrate, black smoke coming off of the body. She shook it off and turned back to the man. "Combat? Uh, yes... but not against something like that. My father taught me how to fight... people."

He shook his head. "Alright, well, we'd better get moving or you're going to end up with a crash course in fighting Grimm. Follow me, and be quick. We've got maybe half an hour before nightfall, and the bullhead will have to abandon the rendezvous point ten minutes before that."

Tsuruya put her sword away and dusted her school uniform off. She chided herself for going on this trip in such an unfitting costume, but it was too late to change into something better. "How far away is that?" It was best not to ask questions, except for the obvious ones.

He grimaced. "Fifteen to twenty minutes away if we go fast."

And with that, he was off running. Tsuruya started off after him, and she was glad that she was at the top of her track class. If she hadn't been so good at sports, she would have lost him in an instant. If she hadn't had such great stamina, she would have gradually lost him. As they ran through abandoned streets, everything looking like it hadn't seen life in years, she spotted the sun on the horizon. It was almost gone from view.

The turned a corner, and when Tsuruya followed the bullhead came into view. It looked close to a helicopter, except had two jet engines sticking off the sides instead of a propeller. Her first thought was that it was really cool, and her second thought was that she wanted one, but then she stopped. The man jumped in through the door on the side of the vehicle, then turned and motioned for her to follow. She was distracted by a massive shape in the air above them.

She pointed up at the shadowy figure. "What the hell is that?"

The man shouted over the sound of the bullhead's engines. "It's a Nevermore! We need to get out of here before more of them show up!"

Looking back down, she jumped in and joined him. He smacked the wall behind the pilot, and the bullhead took off. Tsuruya watched the gigantic bird flying past them as they moved away from the city. It was heading over the city, which was a relief. It was much bigger than the wolf creature or even the Ursa. She couldn't help but wonder if anyone was capable of fighting something like that.

She could see the city now. Whereas she might have expected smoke rising from the ruined buildings, there wasn't any. It had burned for so long, it was a wonder there were still fires burning there. It was a scene of total devastation. She could tell it had once been a thriving city, but now it was all gone.

"I'm Adam, by the way."

She turned to the man standing beside her in the bullhead. "Adam?"

He nodded. "Adam Taurus. Head of the Beacon Rangers." It sounded impressive, though she wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but her face showed that she understood. He pointed to her. "Now it's your turn."

She shook her head, trying to clear it of all the strange thoughts that were running through her mind. "Call me Tsuruya."

"Okay then."

There was silence for a moment before Tsuruya nodded towards the city. "What happened here? What are those things?"

He shot her a look that left no doubt in her mind her thought she was brainless for not already knowing. "Where have you been for the last three years? Those things are Grimm. Nevermore, Ursa, Beowolf, and the list goes on for miles. They've always been outside the borders of the four kingdoms. I guess they finally decided they wanted in."

Tsuruya had to shout over the engines so he could hear her. "I ran into a big werewolf-looking thing just before we met. I managed to kill that one."

Adam looked interested for a bit, before nodding as if that was expected. "Beowolf. They're big, but not so big that you can't fight them the same way you would a person. Usually, anyway. You really don't know anything about the Grimm?"

She shook her head. "Nothing besides what you've already told me."

"Huh..." He took a deep breath. "Well, no one really knows where they came from, but they've been there for as far back as history can recall. So far as we know, their driving instinct is to kill Humans and Faunus and destroy anything we've made. They don't need to eat, but they eat people simply because they want to. We can't really study them either, because they begin to disintegrate as soon as they die. Before the attack, trained huntsmen and huntresses would write volumes of books about all the different known types of Grimm. New types would be discovered literally any time someone went outside the kingdoms. But that's all in the past. Vale fell, and we have no way of knowing if the other kingdoms survived."

There was a lot he had said that she didn't understand, but she assumed it was because he was assuming she knew stuff about this world when she really didn't. She had to figure out a way to get him to explain from the start, but as she was thinking on this something caught her eye. As the sun was setting, she saw what looked like a castle. A huge building on the edge of a cliff, with a river running around it and pouring over the cliff in a magnificent waterfall. It was beautiful where the last rays of sunlight hit it, but she imagined it would look dark and foreboding if the storm clouds were stretching all the way to the horizon and blocking the sun. It would look that way regardless in a few minutes.

Adam leaned around her, taking in the sight himself. "That's Beacon Academy. Once home to hundreds of huntsmen and huntresses in training. Now its walls serve as the last line of defense from the Grimm, protecting all of the remaining population of Vale, as well as a number of people who were visiting from the other kingdoms at the time. The Grimm attacked in the middle of the Vytal Cultural Festival, and other schools like Beacon had sent their students here for the event. As a result, the number of people still living in there is pretty large, but it makes a lot of us wonder if there's anyone left alive in the other kingdoms."

Tsuruya wanted to say something, to clear something up. Unfortunately, her question was based on something she misunderstood. She didn't know what a Faunus was, or even that it was a thing, so she thought he had said 'fauna' instead. "Those monsters... the Grimm. They looked like animals to me. Why do they attack other animals?"

Adam didn't catch her misunderstanding, and so took the question at face value. "They normally don't. Usually, Grimm and normal animals just leave each other alone. They get into territorial fights from time to time, and that could go either way with a smaller Grimm, but the bigger ones just make animals run and hide. And a lot of Grimm may look like animals, but they aren't. You'll understand it when you see some of the uglier ones. Animals, and Humans and Faunus, have souls. We can tell something has a soul if it has an aura. Grimm don't have aura. They're soulless."

She caught it that time. He had said 'Faunus' separately from animals. That had to mean something. "Wait, what's a..." She noticed the horns on his head again. "Faunus? Are you a Faunus?"

He looked disturbed. "What, you couldn't tell?"

She had no choice but to shake her head again. "I... I've never met a Faunus before."

Adam grimaced. "Well, before we start being friends or anything, I think you should know I used to be a high-ranking member of the White Fang. I'm not exactly a nice person, so don't go getting any ideas."

Tsuruya offered him a smile. "Aww, don't say that. You're... you're the nicest Faunus I've ever met."

He groaned, and she sensed he was rolling his eyes. She had just said she'd never met a Faunus before. "That'll change next one you meet, which will be as soon as we land if you stick around to say hello to the pilot."

She felt bad for him, and a bit guilty for not explaining her situation sooner, but she figured it would be best if she wait and find out who could take a story like hers. The bullhead swung in low over Beacon Academy, as if it were in a hurry, and flew into a hangar. The large hangar doors closed behind them, sealing them off from the night. There was no going back now... for now. She had at least the night to find someone who would believe her, albeit ridiculous, story.

Adam jumped out onto the hangar floor and turned to her. "Well, here we are. Our home, and now yours too. Welcome to Beacon."

She sincerely hoped this place wouldn't really end up being her home for any length of time.

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><p><strong>Author's note: So now you know. But we still don't know what all happened here, and it's going to be quite the mystery to solve. Trust me, it'll be a big one. All you have to do to figure out what's wrong is count the characters as they appear. Someone will be missing who should not be missing. You'll find out soon enough.<strong>


	3. First Night At Beacon

The boy that stepped down from the bullhead's cockpit threw Tsuruya for a loop. To make a long story short, she was interested. He had finely chiseled abs, which she could clearly see because he left his shirt open. He was well tanned and had a mop of messy blond hair on top of his head. He had the tail of a monkey swinging behind him, but she quickly determined she could put up with that.

He saw her and sidled up to her. "Hey. My name's Sun. What's yours?"

She looked up at him. "Tsuruya."

Sun nodded like he got it, but it looked like he wasn't sure how to pronounce it. "Right, so, uh... Adam found you in the city? How long were you out there alone?"

She shrugged. "About a minute, I think."

He looked surprised. "Really? Wait, how does that work?"

She held up her hand to stop him. "I'll explain that later. First... can you show me around? Maybe introduce me to people?"

He straightened up. "Uh, yeah. Sure."

A stern-looking blond woman walked over to the two of them, but Adam stepped between them. "I found her in the city. She seems fine."

The woman scowled. "You should have called ahead and asked permission to bring someone new here. We're running out of supplies to feed the people we have. We have to think about this strategically."

Adam gripped his sword, though it was obvious he didn't intend to use it here. "She's just a kid, Glynda. We can't leave her out there alone."

Glynda nodded. "I know, and I would have allowed it if you had asked, but I want to at least know about these things. Or... am I no longer in charge here?"

Adam stepped back, conceding. "No, you are in charge. At least, you are until Ozpin returns from Mistral."

Glynda grimaced. "It's been a month since he left. We need to start accepting that he won't be coming back." Adam turned and walked away, grumbling to himself. Glynda stepped forward and nodded to Tsuruya before addressing Sun. "I believe you said you would show her around. You should get to that. I need to talk with Adam some more."

Sun nodded, turning to Tsuruya and bowing while offering his hand. "Yes, let's." She took his hand and let him lead her off.

Glynda headed over to Adam, who was standing at a table at the side of the hangar and looking over a map of Vale with two others. She started before she was even at the table. "Sorry if I sounded a bit meaner than usual. It has been a rough day." He looked up at her, expecting an explanation. She took a breath. "We lost a bullhead."

The other two looked up as well. Adam thought for a moment before responding. "You're in charge of Beacon, but I give the commands to the Rangers."

She nodded. "Yes, I know."

He stepped around the table, closing the distance between them. "So, then, do you mind explaining to me how we lost a bullhead when I only cleared three to leave here and, lo and behold, all three pilots are back here safely?"

One of the other two, a girl with brown hair and rabbit ears, spoke up. "I received orders to pick up General Ironwood before meeting up with Mercury."

Adam grimaced. "So you didn't use my Rangers. Who was the pilot?"

Glynda sighed. "Professor Peach."

Adam glanced back at the two behind him. "I don't suppose you're going to tell me why it was so important for them to go into town."

Glynda took a deep breath. "I can't give you all the details right now, but I think you have the right to know that there may be a new kind of Grimm out there. One that's unlike any we've ever seen before."

Adam shrugged. "It's always been like that with the Grimm. There's always new kinds. And what, you were looking for this new one? To kill it?"

She shook her head. "No, first we need confirmation of its existence. Then we can worry about finding a way to blast it back out of existence. And I know you're imagining some giant monster Grimm right now, so you can stop that right away. That's not what we're looking for. What we're looking for is a Human-form Grimm."

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><p>The halls of Beacon Academy were crowded, makeshift beds covering all but a thin strip down the middle. There were doorways leading to what looked like bedrooms, but the doors had been removed to allow for more people. Sun led Tsuruya through the halls. It looked like he had an idea of where he was going, but she couldn't tell for sure.<p>

He turned a corner, leading her away from the hallways. "Well, that's how most of us live now. Anyone with skills even remotely useful are given a little bit more if they want it, and everyone else is encouraged to find a way to help." They came out onto a balcony overlooking the campus. There was a boy and a girl sitting on the edge of the balcony, as if keeping watch. Sun addressed them casually. "Gonna be a quiet night?"

The girl, her ginger hair falling just past her shoulders, shrugged. "The clouds are clearing up, so no storm. That means we'll be able to hear them."

Tsuruya looked out at the world laid before her. "Them? The Grimm, you mean?"

The boy, who was sitting cross-legged on the railing, opened his magenta eyes to study the newcomer. "Yes, but more specifically the Whailers."

Sun flinched. "Those again?"

Tsuruya looked to Sun for an explanation. "Whailers?"

The Faunus boy nodded. "We call them that because they look sorta like gigantic whales... with tentacles. Anyway, they're pretty big and they make lots of freaky noises."

The other boy nodded. "They're the largest recorded Grimm, in fact."

The girl added the last unnecessary piece to the mental image Tsuruya was conjuring up. "And they fly."

The boy groaned. "Yes, that too. They fly."

The girl continued. "But they fly really high up, which is why I hate it when there's no clouds. I don't like the idea of having giant Grimm floating in the air over us all th-"

The boy stopped her. "Nora, that's enough."

Sun stepped forward. "Okay, so, anyway, I'd like you two to meet someone." They turned to look at the girl with green hair in their midst. Sun introduced her. "This is Tsuruya. Adam found her in town today. Tsuruya, this is Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren."

The boy smiled at her. "Just call me Ren."

Nora hopped down from the ledge. "You were in town? How did you survive there for so long?"

Tsuruya looked around for a moment, wondering if she should trust these three with the truth. No one else was around, so she thought she should give it a shot. "Alright, here's the thing. I was on my way home from school and a friend of mine gave me this box-thing that was supposed to... uh... maintain a stable portal to another world. It worked, and it opened a portal right in my bedroom and one of these Grimm came through, a Beowolf from what I've heard. I guess I tackled it through the portal and that's when I ended up here. Adam found me, like, a few seconds after I came to your world."

The three of them stared at her for a few seconds. It was Nora who broke the silence. "That's... AWESOME!"

Ren tried to calm her down. "Nora, wait, I don't think we should just-"

Nora turned to face him. "Just what? She says she comes from another world, then who are we to say otherwise? I say we believe her until we have hard evidence that she's lying."

Sun wasn't having an easy time with the information either. He leaned back against the balcony railing. "But... come on, portals between worlds? You only get that in fantasy movies."

Nora eyed him. "We use techno-magic to fight evil monsters for a living."

He shrugged. "Yeah, and?"

Both girls rolled their eyes, unaware of each other doing the same. Tsuruya picked up the conversation again. "So, uh, what I need you to take away from all that right now is... I don't know a thing about your world. Also, probably best if you didn't tell anyone."

Sun nodded. "That I can believe. And if you really need to be filled in on absolutely everything, then I'm sure we can help you there." He looked to Nora. "In the meantime, send up a light so we can see where those things are."

Nora nodded, stepping out to the edge of the balcony. She reached down and picked something up off the ground, lifting it to her shoulder. She aimed it straight up and, just as Tsuruya was thinking it looked like a grenade launcher, fired. The shot flew up into the air until it disappeared from sight completely. Somewhere above them it exploded into a bright light that lit up the night sky.

In amongst the clouds, massive shapes were moving. Tsuruya's eyes went wide at the sight. They did indeed look like whales, save for the long tendrils covering the body. The sounds reached down to them, like distant wails and moans far too enormous to belong to anything she had ever seen before. If she had to describe them to someone back home, she would have said 'mile-long zombie whales'. That was really the only description that did them any sort of justice in both appearance and sound.

Tsuruya watched the shapes in the sky until the light died out. She looked back down to the others. "How can anyone fight that?"

Ren shook his head. "That's been the question for three years now. If we knew how to get rid of the Grimm, we would do it. That's what the Huntsmen and Huntresses have been aiming to achieve since as far back as history can recall."

"If we didn't have the Grimm, we would still be fighting each other."

Everyone turned to see who had spoken. Nora jumped up and hugged the other redhead. "Pyrrha! You have to come meet our new friend! She says she's from a differe-"

Ren called after her. "Nora! ...People are trying to sleep." Nora caught the hidden message and got off of Pyrrha.

Pyrrha looked over Tsuruya. "Oh, hello. You must be Tsuruya. Adam told me I might find you up here. Has Sun given you too much trouble?"

Tsuruya nodded, then shook her head. "No, no trouble. He just showed me around and then brought me here. Then we looked up at a sky full of terrifying monsters."

Pyrrha looked up at the sky. "Hmm... Adam told you that Beacon was a school, right?"

Tsuruya shrugged and nodded. "I don't think he called it a school specifically, but it's an academy, and that's pretty much the same thing."

Pyrrha laughed. "Well, yes. Ren, Nora and I were on the same team here at Beacon when this all started. We'd be on vacation right now, resting up before our fourth year, if the Grimm hadn't suddenly attacked in such numbers. Or at least, that's what our schedule says we would be doing."

Nora stepped up to Tsuruya's side, quietly explaining to her. "Pyrrha thinks that people would have started fighting each other if the Grimm hadn't attacked."

Pyrrha turned around. "Would we not have? The White Fang and Roman Torchwick were on the verge of starting a war between Vale and Atlas. No war ever happened, but only because they thought they could herd the Grimm. They underestimated the Grimm, and by the time we all realized that the Grimm were using Torchwick's plan for their own purpose it was too late. In that moment, our greatest enemy united us, brought us together. I believe that the Grimm were given to us in order to keep us from killing each other. My God, we almost did start killing each other. There was power armor running down the highway. People were running scared from bomb threats. No Human or Faunus could have brought us all together so quickly."

Tsuruya spoke up from beside Nora. "So you think the attack was a good thing?"

Pyrrha smiled. "Too many people have died for it to be all good. I don't know, perhaps it was divine punishment or something like that. Though... no one really believes in anything divine anymore. Then again, maybe that's why."

Ren sat up on the railing again. "Well, it's hard to believe in something divine once the soul has been quantified and measured with scientific instruments." He stopped abruptly, looking like he was suddenly thinking really hard about something.

Pyrrha shook her head. "Well, that's enough of that for now. Who's hungry? Jaune made pancakes."

Tsuruya brightened up. "Hey, you have pancakes here?"

Nora brightened up at the same time and in the same way. "Alright, pancakes! It's pancake time!"

Sun pushed off from the railing. "Pancake time?"

Nora nodded. "Pancake time comes right after fireworks time and right before sleep time."

Everything stopped suddenly at the sound of a happy little jingle. Everyone turned to Tsuruya. There was silence, and then the jingle returned. It was unmistakable. The foreign sound was coming from her. She took in all of their dumbstruck and baffled faces for a moment, deciding that she wanted to burn that image into her mind. It truly was priceless.

Certain she had it, she turned away from them and reached into her shirt where she kept her phone, pulling it out and opening it. She put it to her ear. "Hello?"

She found herself joining the ranks of the baffled when a familiar voice reached her. "_Tsuruya! I need your help! I found a cat that's a girl, but she doesn't want me to catch her!_"

Tsuruya was silent for a few moments, but then shook it off. "Mikuru? How did you reach me here?"

Mikuru's voice came back. "_What? Where are you?_"

Tsuruya puffed up her cheeks. She didn't want to have that conversation in front of the others right now. "Well... well, if you can't catch the cat, then how do you know it's a girl?"

Mikuru took a few extra seconds to answer. "_Uh... oh! Cause she has a girl's voice!_"

Tsuruya rolled her eyes. "Alright, Mikuru. Whatever you say. Look, I'm really busy. I don't think I can help you catch a cat right now."

"_Oh, okay._" She sounded like she was about to hang up, but then she started up again. "_Oh, right! You're going to be at school tomorrow, right? We met some new friends and we're going on an adventure, but I want you to come along too._"

Tsuruya wasn't sure what to make of this adventure or these new friends, but she did know one thing for sure. "Yeah, I don't think I can be there. I'm actually probably going to be away for a while. Sorry, Mikuru."

"_Oh... okay. See you later, then._"

"Again, I'm sorry. Bye, Mikuru." She hung up, then stared at her phone for a moment. "The portal must be still open. That's the only way that call could have gotten through."

Ren stood up. "I think I should tell you. I've decided that Nora is right. Until we see evidence otherwise, I see no reason to doubt your story." Tsuruya turned back to the four other-worlders. Ren continued. "But then we have a problem. It seems your friends can still contact you, and if you're right and that's because the portal's still open, and that portal is somewhere in Vale, and that means the Grimm are free to cross into your world."

Tsuruya nearly dropped her phone. "Oh my God, you're right."

Pyrrha cleared her throat. "Um... what's going on?"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note: Good question, Pyrrha! What is going on? Well, here we've introduced a few more characters. Namely Glynda, Pyrrha, Ren, Nora, and Sun. If you couldn't tell, Velvet was there also. Massive Grimm floating high above everything, Ozpin MIA, character we've never seen is dead, and chances of a new Grimm with the form of a Human, and Mikuru found a girl cat? Yes indeed. Let's see, what's coming up next... ah ha! Meeting all the rest of Adam's Beacon Rangers!<strong>

**Also, for the uninformed, this story takes place somewhere around three years after the first volume of RWBY.**


	4. Terror In The Skies

Tsuruya looked up from her breakfast, speaking quietly over to Pyrrha. "You said Roman Torchwick was the guy who almost started a war before the Grimm attacked, right?"

Pyrrha nodded. "If his plans had gone through, we'd all be at each other's throats."

Tsuruya glanced over to the redhead. "You could have stopped him, right? Someone could have stopped him."

Pyrrha shook her head. "Miss Goodwitch has fought against Roman's associates, so she might have had a clue what to do. But her responsibilities at Beacon would have kept her from it until it was too late."

On the other side of Pyrrha, a scruffy blond boy who looked like he hadn't cut his hair in years spoke up. "There was someone else who took on Roman."

Pyrrha raised her hand to stop him. "Jaune, it's best we don't bring that up. What could have been is something we shouldn't dwell on." She shook her head and smiled to Tsuruya. "Why do you ask about Roman, though?"

Tsuruya shrugged. "Well, maybe I missed something, but isn't that him right there?"

Pyrrha and Jaune looked to where she was looking. Pyrrha sighed. "Yes, that's him. Everyone else that was working with him offered to help when the Grimm attacked. He just sort of leeches off everyone else. He doesn't help in any way at all."

Tsuruya looked back to Pyrrha. "Well, has anyone asked him to help out?"

Pyrrha looked back to her food. "If he hasn't offered, then he wouldn't help even if we asked." There was a short silence before Pyrrha answered again. "We don't... this goes unsaid most of the time, but we don't ask him because nobody wants his help. You're right, we don't know if he would help or not, but we would all rather just not have him around."

Jaune lowered his head, his blond bangs covering his eyes. "I know someone else who would have been a great help fighting back against the Grimm."

Pyrrha turned on him, lowering her voice. "I said stop it. They're gone, and there's nothing we can do about it. It's best to just focus on what we have and what we can do now."

Tsuruya leaned across towards Ren and Nora, who had so far kept quiet. "Who are they talking about?"

Nora was right in, answering before Pyrrha could stop her. "Team RWBY. Their leader took on Roman before she even finished at Signal." Tsuruya shook her head, not picking up on what that meant. Nora explained. "Oh, well, Signal is the academy a lot of students go to before Beacon. It's your basic combat school, whereas Beacon is for advanced training specifically designed for creating Huntsmen and Huntresses. Anyways, her name was Ruby Rose. She was moved up two years, so she was only fifteen when she took on a capable and ruthless fighter like Roman Torchwick, which is pretty impressive."

Ren picked it up while Nora was taking a breath. "The other girls on the team were also prodigies on their own. Jaune and Nora think we'd be far better off if they were still around. Personally, I think it would have been nice, but I don't see that just four people could have changed the way things happened. Pyrrha..."

Pyrrha spoke for herself. "I think we should stop dwelling on the past and things that might have been."

Tsuruya prodded Pyrrha for answers. "Wait, so, what happened to them?"

Pyrrha was quiet for a moment, trying to decide if she should give her the answer. Eventually, she gave in. "They just vanished in the middle of the year. Right before the Vytal festival and all Roman's plans were about to come together. No one knows what happened to them, really. They went down to the docks to greet new arrivals from Vacuo, and then no one ever saw them again."

Tsuruya had to think about that for a moment. "Wait... four prodigy fighters went missing in the middle of the city... before the Grimm attacked?"

Pyrrha just nodded. "Yup." And the conversation was over just like that.

A few minutes passed in silence until the awkwardness started to get to Tsuruya. She stood up. "Well, I'm going to see if there's anyone who doesn't want the rest of their breakfast." She turned and bumped into someone's back. The young man turned and promptly apologized, seemingly uninterested in laying the blame on her. Tsuruya looked up at him. "You know... you're really tall."

He smiled, offering his hand. "I'm Neptune. You must be the foreign girl Sun told me about."

Looking way up, she realized he had bright blue hair. "Ah..." She straightened up, taking his hand and shaking it firmly, as she had learned was the normal customary greeting on other planets. "I'm Tsuruya. You must be the colossal god of the oceans Sun told me about."

Neptune gave a confused look. "I'm sorry, I... don't understand what you mean."

Tsuruya waved and walked away. "Catch you later, fish boy!"

Just as she was walking away, a siren blared overhead. Several people around the large dining hall jumped up and rushed for the exit. Not really thinking, Tsuruya ran to catch up with them. They ran outside of the building, all eyes turning to the sky. Glancing back, Tsuruya saw a lot of faces pressed up against the windows to see what was happening. She looked up.

Clouds blocked out the giant whale Grimm, but there was something else a lot closer. It was like a great black worm, a nightmarish maw where a face might have been. Three pairs of huge leathery black wings positioned along its body kept it aloft, sending huge gusts of wind down towards the academy grounds with every beat.

Adam rushed out of the main building, waving everyone away. He shouted over the siren and the sweeping sounds of the giant Grimm. "Coco! Oobleck! Everyone else back inside!"

Tsuruya, however, missed it. As everyone moved back indoors, she found herself with a front row seat. Running to meet Adam was a man wearing a brown coat and sporting a great hair color. Strolling behind him was a tall stylish girl, toting a handbag along with her.

Adam ran across the grassy expanse between the main building and the outer perimeter. Tsuruya looked where he was headed and saw that several smaller Grimm had climbed over the wall. Beowolves mostly, like the one that had invaded her bedroom, along with an Ursa or two.

Coco positioned herself under the giant flying worm, waiting for her weapon to finish switching modes. Once it was done she held an overlarge gatling gun. She aimed up at the worm and opened fire. A spray of rapid-fire bullets tore through the massive beast, sending pieces of black hide flying through the air and disintegrating as they fell towards the ground. As awesome and destructive as the weapon's effects were, it didn't seem to cause the worm anything more than annoyance. They were huge chunks being shot off, but mere flakes off the creature's skin.

Beside her, Doctor Oobleck began launching blasts of fire from his weapon. They impacted the body of the beast, but also seemed to do little more than knock flakes off the flying mass. Tsuruya saw what was happening, and that the creature was unaffected. She ran to join the two, stopping right in front of them.

"You're not doing anything! It's too big! You..." She looked up at it. "You have to aim for the wings! Destroy it's wings! They're smaller and weaker!" She noticed something else. "But not while it's-"

Coco finished for her. "Not while it's still flying over the school! But we're hurting it first!"

Tsuruya watched where the two were firing their weapons, and how the worm reacted. They shot at its tail mostly, and it reacted by moving its head as far away from its tail as it could. Then they fired at the empty air, and it moved away from that spot entirely. They were leading it away from the school... until... its head was no longer over anything important.

Several blasts of fire launched towards one of the front wings, a stream of bullets striking at the opposite wing. The most fragile parts of the monster shattered, and the wings fell to the ground in a growing mess of black smoke. No longer supported, the head fell as well. It crashed down, shaking the ground and making a crater, then continued moving around and trying to fly. The back two pairs of wings kept the rest of the body in the air, flying forward and away from the school until they had passed over the fallen head and started dragging it along the ground.

Carrying her weapon, Coco ran ahead. She stopped in front of the Grimm's mouth. It saw her, and the head started crawling along the ground towards her. She turned and ran towards the outer wall, guiding the worm farther away from the school. Once she was sure it had enough space to fall without harming anyone, she aimed her weapon and fired right down its throat. The back of its head exploded in a shower of dark fragments, causing visible jolts of pain to shoot through the length of its body.

Oobleck fired up at the remaining wings, blasting them off one by one, causing the tail end to fall to the ground. When it finally collapsed entirely, sending up a cloud of dust and dirt into the air, Tsuruya finally let herself breath easy. She looked over to the green-haired man, seeing his cocky smile.

Tsuruya slumped over sheepishly. "You guys knew what you were doing the whole time, didn't you."

He nodded. "Yes, but the fact that you were able to deduce the same strategy indicates a keen mind necessary for becoming a Huntress. You, I believe, have what it takes even at your young age to become a great Huntress. Tell me, do you have an interest in joining us in the defense of the innocent from the ravages of the dark forces that inhabit our world?"

He spoke in such rapid fire manner that she barely understood what he was saying, but she caught the gist of it. She was about to decline, thinking that it wasn't her fight, but then the giant worm's tail started moving again. She jumped back. "It's still alive!"

Oobleck seemed not to mind. "Alive and writhing in pain as our friend shreds its insides with her weapon. She knows where the brain is on these things. It'll be dead in a few moments."

Calming down, she looked over the length of the thing. It was unbelievable in size, and yet these people fought them just to survive. Adam wasn't far off, tearing through Beowolves like they were nothing. She had already taken out one Beowolf all on her own. Perhaps, she thought, with training she could be as powerful as them.

Smoke started coming off the body of the now dead worm. Coco walked over to join them. The siren stopped blaring, and Tsuruya saw Adam standing on the wall and looking out over the landscape beyond. She turned to Oobleck, feeling her hand moving towards her sword and gripping the handle.

She nodded. "I think... I think I do want to help."

Coco stood behind Tsuruya, placing her hand on her hip. "From what Sun told me, you'll probably need your aura activated before you'll be much use in a fight, girl from another world."

Tsuruya's face turned red. "He told everyone?" She turned around to face Coco. "Wait a minute. Aura?"

Coco nodded, reaching up and flicking some hair over her shoulder. "Well, anyway, if you need your aura unlocked, you can talk to Pyrrha. She's good with that. I mean, I could, but Pyrrha can explain it to you at the same time. She loves to explain aura, so I couldn't let her miss another opportunity."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note: What do you think about my giant Grimm fight? Oh, don't worry, there'll be more awesome fights than that later on. Anyways, the new Grimm is called a Doom Worm. They are... pretty ugly. That's about it.<br>**

**Oh yes, and team RWBY is MISSING!**


End file.
